Monthly Archives: January 2008

May I have your paw in marriage

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We are proud to announce the marriage of Kaia and Max! The blushing bride wore a white, sparkley princess gown with pink slippers, and the groom… well the groom was none to happy about his white veil. Seems his bride made a last minute change from his elegant black tux with tails to a shiny polyester veil with cheap elastic.
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The Bride kept a smile on through the whole ceremony, but as you can see, the groom is not the happiest about the clothing mishap, though he still looks quite stunning.
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After the ceremony, the groom spent the rest of the evening sitting on another woman’s lap, sulking while his bride danced the night away.

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Ring for Sale

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In order to help finance the adoption of my kitties, I’m selling a ring of mine. I thought I’d check to see if any of you want it before I put it on Ebay. It’s a really beautiful ring made of 14K yellow gold, and is in great shape. The design is called “Josephine’s Knot” and you can see another picture of the ring Here. It is a size 6, but can be resized by the designer, Walker Metalsmiths I’d love to get $225 for it, but I’ll entertain offers.
“The Emperor Napoleon Bonapart employed many Irish soldiers known as The Wild Geese. He is known to have also patronized Irish culture by employing a court harpist and may have commissioned Irish craftsmen also. The empress Josephine was a favorite of seaman and the name of this knot comes from a nautical tradition, although the knot was used a thousand years earlier. The Josephine’s knot is a lover’s knot as it intertwines separate links to make the whole pattern.”

Isabella’s kittens

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Isabella had her kittens last week (on the 17th).  This morning they opened their eyes, so the breeder took some pictures for me.  There are two female kittens.  We are getting the black and caramel one along with Isabella, probably in the end of March!  Wohoo

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On the other cat front, we got Max back today.  We asked the family that was caring for him while we build to watch him until Dec. or Jan. when we hoped to have the house done.  But, now it is more likely march, so we didn’t want to ask them to keep on caring for him, especially since she was having allergies.  So, we’re off to pick him up this afternoon!  I’ll post pictures when he’s settled in.

slow and steady

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Progress on the house has been a little slow this past week. We got snowed in and no one could make it up our drive, and Kaia was ill this weekend. It’s also been bone chilling cold! But, I got out there and sealed and caulked the tub today. It looks fancy!!! All the window trim is up and the stairs will get finished this week (temporary steps come out, real treads and risers go in.) Then the upstairs floor and trim can be finished and the Master bedroom will be done!!! So, we could potentially move some stuff in there, just for a little extra elbow room.

Two of the stones in our new soapstone wood stove have cracked and I’m having a hell of a time getting them replaced.  Our local stove store seems to have gotten stupid over night now that we want to replace something and not buy it.  I’ve been trying to get one stone replaced since mid-dec. and the other stone broke this week.  Anyone else have broken stones with soap stone stoves?

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Strawbooty Shortcake

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How to create laughter in the home after being snowed in for days with a sick child?

Read Strawberry Shortcake books and replace every ‘berry’ word with ‘booty’.

“Once upon a time, Strawbooty Shortcake joined her booty best friends for a picnic. After they had eaten, Strawbooty sighed with happiness, “that was the booty best picnic ever!” she exclaimed. “Oh Strawbooty, our picnic’s not over yet” Rainbow Sherbet said, “Bluebooty’s going to read us a story”. “I brought my favorite book for fairy tales” added Bluebooty Muffin……”

Trim

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All the trim is going up!

Here’s the design we decided on for the windows. Isn’t it classy. I think it goes really well with all the other angles in the house. For the windows, I am going to finish them with a wood finish from Earthpaint made with beeswax, linseed oil, pine resin, and citrus distillate. They are going to look fabulous! The door trim, and floor molding are going to be painted white.

These are windows in the master bedroom. The larger one doubles as our door onto the living roof ‘patio’.

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This is one of the windows in the stairwell.

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Tiling the tub

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Toby’s mom, Kaia, and I worked on finishing up the tub today!  I love this kind of work.  It’s instant gratification.  We got the larger tiles almost 2 years ago free from some place that went out of business.  The color was a bit 70’s disco orange.  So, I went to the local tile place and got some marble and glass tiles (the little ones) to spruce it up a little.  Came out pretty nice, eh?  Tomorrow we will grout and seal it.  I’ll post more pictures when it’s done.

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Oh, the local paper, the Asheville Citizen Times, sent a photographer out yesterday to take some pictures of us and the house.  They are doing a story on the company that makes the Earthpaint that we used on our walls and woodwork, and wanted some info from people who have actually used it.  After the photographer left, I realized that I had wood glue all over my coat, Toby had soot from the wood stove on his face, and Kaia had red eyeshadow on from an earlier “dress up” game.  HA!  I wonder how good they are with an airbrush 🙂

Mate Cocido

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Last May, when I flew up to NH on a trip, I sat next to a really interesting woman from Paraguay.  She was probably in her 80’s, but she was a spry little lady!  We talked about family, raising kids, traveling… but mostly we talked herbs.  She talked a lot about Mate, which is a major drink in Paraguay.  She mentioned a couple of different recipes that her parents made with the Mate when she was a kid.  Mate terere was one, which is mate made with cold water and lemon, or cold juices.  But, the one I really wanted to try was Mate Cocido.  She gave a detailed description of how you take the mate leaves  and cook them with sugar on an open flame until it caramalizes.  But, once I left the plane, I couldn’t remember all the details.

Anyway, today, what do I get in the mail, but a package from this woman.  She bought me a pound of Mate when she got back to Paraguay and sent it to me with instructions on how to make Mate Cocido!  Isn’t she great!!  I can’t wait to try it!

In a pan put 6 tablespoons of yerba mate leaves and 3 tablespoons of sugar.  Cook gently while stirring and  brown the sugar. Be careful not to allow it to burn. Turn off the stove and pour 2 cups of water (or a mix of water and milk to make a total of 2 cups) over the mate and sugar.  Strain out the herbs and enjoy the drink! (If it’s too strong add more fluid)
I read a recipe on the internet that also suggested adding a little dried orange peel to the caramalizing process.  Mmmm, sounds good!

Issabella cat

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We took a drive this weekend to visit friends and get a little vacation from house and jobs.  It was very relaxing and nice to do a little catching up.  (We’ve been a little antisocial since the house building started.)  During our weekend, we also went to visit a Devon Rex breeder.  Max is a Devon and we plan to get him a friend once the house is done.  (I’d love to adopt a cat from a shelter but, I have allergies to most cats, except Devons.  They have a different coat that doesn’t bother some allergy sufferers).

So, meet Issabella:

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She’s a 3 year old Devon Rex (as you can see by the pixie face and the wavy fur) and she is a total love bug!  It was hard to get any pictures of her because she kept rubbing all around :-)  Issabella has had a few litters of kittens and the breeder is planning on placing her in a home where she can live the rest of her life as a pet.  So, YAY, we get to take her home!  And guess what!?!  She is due to have her last litter of kittens this Wed.  (That’s why she’s in an enclosure.  The pregnant mamas are kept separated so they can have their kittens in peace.)  So, we may get one of her kittens, too!  I’ll post pictures when they are born.  I’m really excited.  I’ve missed Max dearly while we’ve been building the house.  Having him and other devons in the house will be great!  They have such personalities!!!  Not like aloof cats at all.  They are more like puppies who follow you around, demand a spot on your lap, and love to talk.  Daisy the Curly Cat is an adorable blog of a devon rex if you want to see what I mean about personality.

A good ol’ fashioned solar panel raisin’

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Here they are, getting instructions from the boss.
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And up we go!

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They now sit to the north of the big house, just outside the back door.  (to the right of the panels you can see the trench we dug that lead all the way to the well)

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I like this pic. because you can really see the intensity of the sun hitting the panels

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I don’t know how everything turned out, ’cause I had to leave for the evening.  But, we should have our floors warming up soon!!

Walls are full of color!

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Alrighty!!!  My mother-in-law came over this weekend and we painted all the walls!!!

As you walk in the front door and turn right, you see the study/office/xtra bedroom.  It’s “mulberry patch” colored 🙂 Yes, those are our new appliances… they are working on installing the solar water system in the mudroom, so we put the appliances in here for now.
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Here are the walls in the main living area.  It’s “orange pekoe”  I love this color!
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This is that downstairs bathroom… “Cathay Coral” color.  It will go great with the mexican talavara sink!

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Stairwell up to the master room

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Stairway looking down

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The color I was going for in the master BR was a pinky-taupe… it turned out very purple.  So, luckily I have a mother-in-law who use to be an interior designer… so we pulled out some of the other paints and mixed us up a new color!
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A little orange pekoe, pink taupe, and pampas grass green and you get a great bedroom wall color!
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Here’s the mud room solar controls for the hot water… They are out setting up the panels as I write.

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The Hooping Life

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Ooooo, I can’t wait to see this!  Just watching the trailer inspires me to get out and hoop more.  I’ve had so little time to hoop in the past few months, and it was getting to be such a great form of release and enjoyment for me.  My new years resolution… Hoop More!!!

Happy 2008!

Many Blessings in the New Year!